Rutland being sized up for new USDA offices

The local branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking for a new home, and Rutland is on the short list of possible locations.

The USDA will have to be out of their long-time location at 52 Boyden Road in Holden and into new offices by November.

USDA Rural Development State Director David Tuttle said that the agency would like to remain in the Wachusett area.

"This has been a good area for us. We do a lot of business here and it is centrally located," Tuttle said.

Representatives from the USDA met with Department of Public Works Superintendent Carl Christianson Jr. just before the New Year and toured the still-under construction Primary Building's lower level.

"They told me they needed 6,000 square feet of office space, and that the downstairs at the Primary Building was too small for their needs," Christianson reported to the board of selectmen last week.

At that meeting, the selectmen voiced different ideas on how to handle the potential opportunity.

Selectman Douglas Briggs said that if the Primary Building was not suitable, then the Glenwood Community Center should be considered for transformation into office space.

The Council on Aging and the Recreation Commission both currently occupy the Community Center, but Briggs suggested that they could be moved into the Primary Building.

Selectman Skip Clark advocated that the entire Primary Building should be offered to the USDA.

"Why would we think of kicking out these other people when we've got a vacant building sitting right here?" he said.

Chairman Donald D'Auteuil did not favor renting the Primary Building because that space had been earmarked for new municipal offices. He said if the USDA moved in the town would have to install an elevator.

Selectman Sheila Dibb, strongly in favor of courting the USDA, said that in light of the town's current budgetary problems, spacious municipal offices were the least of Rutland's concerns.

"If [town employees] are crowded for a few years, then they're crowded. At least they still have their jobs," she said.

D'Auteuil appointed Dibb and Clark to be the board's liaisons to the USDA.

Though there have been no set numbers discussed so far, with commercial office space in the area fetching anywhere from $7 to $14 per square foot, the potential exists for the town to cash in on tens of thousands of dollars of new revenue, officials said.

"Whether it's through real estate or anything else, this town needs to be in the business of drawing in more sources of new revenue," Dibb said.

Director Tuttle said the USDA will begin the bidding process on April 1 and expects to have a final decision by June.